First session for rookie lawmakers marks a homecoming

SACRAMENTO — When the Legislature convenes its 2011-12 session today, the event will mark a homecoming for two 30-something rookie lawmakers from Ventura County who will take their oaths of office in the same building in which their political ambitions were spawned.

Both came to the Capitol in the 1990s, just out of college, to work in the offices of high-ranking state officials — Republican Jeff Gorell on the staff of Gov. Pete Wilson, Democrat Das Williams on the staff of Assembly Speaker Cruz Bustamante.

Each later moved to the Central Coast, left state employment and became engaged in local civic affairs. And in 2010 each successfully set his sights on returning to Sacramento by winning election to the Assembly.

Gorell, 39, and Williams, 37, will represent the two districts that cover most of Ventura County.

Unlike many of the 28 freshmen who will be sworn in today in the Assembly, Gorell and Williams know their way around the Capitol and the hallways in which they ran errands as interns and junior staff members.

Williams describes the experience as an advantage, largely because it has helped him understand the potential pitfalls of being a legislator, a perspective that informed his choices in selecting staff members.

“You have to surround yourself with people who don’t think you’re the center of the universe and will tell you when you’re wrong,” he said.

Both say they are well prepared for the challenge — although Gorell’s is complicated by the fact that he will have to take a one-year leave of absence in March to serve a tour a duty for the Navy in Afghanistan. He is a lieutenant commander in the Navy Reserve.

“The opportunity weighs on my shoulders,” Gorell said last week of his chance to return to the Capitol as a legislator. “This is my Carnegie Hall, my Wimbledon, my Super Bowl. This is my chance to make a difference; I’m no longer going to be just chattering about.”

Those who remember him from his youthful stint in the Capitol are not surprised by his enthusiasm and idealism. Finance Department spokesman H.D. Palmer, who worked with Gorell in former Gov. Wilson’s press office, good-naturedly compared him recently to the Jimmy Stewart character in Frank Capra’s 1939 film: “Mr. Smith in dress whites.”

Williams has turned to some of his old colleagues from the Capitol to help run his office. He has hired as his chief of staff Susan McIntyre, a woman he worked with when both were on the staff of former Assemblyman Jack Scott, now chancellor of the state community college system.

He said he has requested a staffing allocation that will result in fewer Capitol-based staff so that he can open district field offices in Oxnard, Ventura and Santa Barbara.

Gorell said he feels doubly challenged because in his first year in office he will have “3 1/2 months to do what other legislators have 12 months to do.”

Step one, he said, was hiring a district representative with sufficient stature in the community to be seen as an able surrogate during the year he is away. He selected former Fillmore Mayor Ernie Villegas, a retired regional public affairs manager for Southern California Edison and a recent business partner of Gorell’s at Palladin Principle, a local public relations firm.

Beyond that, Gorell said he hopes to come up with a package of about a dozen bills to introduce before his departure. The first, which he intends to introduce today, would require the state to adopt a budgeting process known as “priority-based budgeting,” in which agencies would receive 80 percent of their prior year’s budget and be required to advocate for any additional money based on their missions.

Gorell said he believes the idea is consistent with the message of frugality expressed by Gov.-elect Jerry Brown during his campaign.

“My hope is to show the governor I want to be a player in his effort to reformulate the way the state thinks about its budget process,” he said.

Williams’ first bill, which he will introduce today, is a proposal to provide incentives to cities to establish or expand composting and green waste programs. Such programs, he said, often “save the end user money, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create jobs.”

Gorell and Williams have met several times since their election to discuss ways they could team together to sponsor bipartisan bills of specific interest to Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

One area of common interest is combating gangs, Williams said. “We both share a real interest in gang issues, in giving law enforcement better tools to fight gangs.”